Happy Birthday, Baby!

Jon turned the big THIRTY this year!  I'm married to an old guy :)

We've had lots of activities to celebrate, including, but not limited to...

... hiking around Rock City at Mt. Diablo.  Jon had Monday off of work, so we joined Cami and the boys and had a great time playing!  The mom's were nervous about some of the heights and the kids jumping about on those great heights, but nobody was terribly injured... and everybody had a lot of fun!

... my mini "surprise" party for Jon Monday evening!  Not a "jump out and scare you" surprise, but more of a gradual surprise.  I had, unbeknownst to him, invited some friends from the ward and from scouts to just randomly come by to wish Jon a happy birthday and hang out for games, appetizers, and desserts.  It was fun to watch Jon's puzzlement as friends kept showing up and wishing him happy birthday.  We collected a fun little group throughout the night and played the classic games of "Pin the party hat on the 30 year old" and "stand on a chair and drop something in a jar."  (If you're a Severson, you know exactly what game I'm talking about) I had prepared many of Jon's favorite treats: stuffed mushrooms, salt and vinegar chips, cheesecake, cream puffs, chips and salsa, black cherry jell-o jigglers (and of course a veggie tray and fruit tray to keep things looking healthy). We had quite a delicious spread that lasted the whole week.  It turned into quite a crazy late night, finishing off playing a new game, Repello, with Brooke and Jon until midnight... and THEN, I made pizza (the dough was rising and I wasn't sure it would keep another day)... so poor Jon didn't get to bed until about 2am.  Yeah, we can be party animals...

...  backpacking Point Reyes!  Jon planned this activity for his birthday several months ago with Brooke and Jonny.  Brooke had never been backing before and Jon wanted to make it a fun experience for her.  He took many precautions to make sure that Brooke was neither cold, nor hungry throughout the 36 hour trip.  The weather was FANTASTIC: no rain and temperatures in the 50's! The hike in was particularly awesome!  Though we started the hike well after dark, the full moon was out and we didn't even use flashlights most of the time!

Kiss, don't eat, the frogs...

And the frogs!  There must have been hundreds of them! We only saw a couple lost lonely frogs hopping across the trail, but we heard raucous choruses of them off the trail! We tried a couple times to find the big group of them, but had no luck whatsoever. (the video is pretty terrible in the dark with us wearing headlamps, but the sound is amazing!)

The next day was spent enjoying the beach, the hills and rocky terrain around the area, and just taking our time doing whatever we felt like.  We packed up and hiked back in the afternoon, stopped at a local burger and shakes place for dinner, and headed home.  Many MANY thanks to Nana and Mandy for watching the kids the ENTIRE day!

Monkey boy... now we know where Xochitl gets it...

 

Monkey boys up high...

Look closely... Jon is throwing a bag to Jonny from 15 feet below. I caught a picture of the bag flying through the air!

Congrats, Brooke, you survived a backpacking trip!

 

Why not go backpacking at 20 weeks pregnant? Jon carried almost everything for me... all I had was my sleeping bag and clothes. 

And that is the birthday week :) Happy 30th birthday, my love!